The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A weak night and it is going to get weaker. Only three programs with a million or more viewers in metro markets again tells us just how viewers felt about the night’s offerings. More than 45% of the audience didn’t watch the networks’ main channels last night: nearly 20% watched pay TV and over a quarter were watching the digital channels (which pleases the networks).

In regional markets a huge 36.3% of the FTA audience watched the digital networks last night, close to an all time high. In metro markets it was a very high 32.7%.

Ten was again weak (but says it was number one in the metro markets in viewers under 40). But the grim fact remains that the ABC’s programs were still more popular with all viewers than Ten’s offerings.

The Freddie Mercury (Queen) special on ABC2 at 8.30pm averaged 390,000 viewers.

Tonight: Weak. Bean counter control makes for hours of repeats and flops and the odd NZ program (which count as local quota). That is a direct result of the costs/revenue pressures the networks are currently under.

It’s repeat TV at its worse: for example, Seven has the Kiwi clones Motorway Patrol and Serious Crash Unit  and then a repeat of Castle, and then two fresh eps of the American original, The Amazing Race. That’s after a fresh-ish episode of Better Homes and Gardens at 7pm.

Ten has repeats of Modern Family and fresh episodes of flops The New Normal, Ben and Kate and Hawaii Five-O (what a line-up of failures). Nine has a repeat of The Mentalist and repeats also of The Big Bang Theory and RBT, plus a repeat of House Husbands at 9.30pm, then repeats of Unforgettable and then Nikita. In fact Nine doesn’t have a new program after ACA ends just after 7pm (and many of its ideas are retreads anyway).

Even the ABC is in on the lurk with repeats of Family Confidential at 8pm and Country House Rescue at 8.30pm. Fake Or Fortune at 9.30pm is at least fresh. SBS also has repeats of Mythbusters and Derren Brown: The Experiments.

Last Week: Seven eventually won the first week of summer ratings nationally and in metro and regional markets. Ten was fourth behind the ABC and ABC1.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

  1. Seven News — 1.551 million.
  2. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.472 million.
  3. Nine News — 1.426 million.
  4. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.375 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.288 million.
  6. The Manor Reborn (ABC 1) — 1.094 million.
  7. Christmas with The Weekly (Nine) — 968,000.
  8. The Pillars of the Earth (ABC 1) — 943,000.
  9. Border Patrol (Seven) — 926,000.
  10. Bones (Seven) — 922,000.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Seven News — 1.045 million.
  2. Nine News — 1.019 million.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.012 million.

The Losers: Everyone, except those who watched the Freddie Mercury special on ABC2 last night.Metro News & CA:

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.045 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.019 million.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30 – 8.30 pm) — 1.012 million.
  4. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30 – 7.30 pm) — 949,000.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 862,000.
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 507,000.
  7. Nine News (5pm) — 273,000.
  8. SBS ONE News (6.30pm) — 144,000.

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 403,000.
  2. Weekend Today (Nine, 8am) — 313,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 28.6% from Nine (three) on 25.2%,  the ABC (four) on 21.1%, Ten (three) on 18.8% and SBS (two) on 6.3%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 18.1% from Nine on 17.5%, ABC 1 was on 14.1%, Ten was on 11.9% and SBS ONE was on 5.8%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 6.0% from ABC2 on 5.2%, 7mate on 4.5%, GO was on 4.2%, ONE was on 3.8%, Gem was on 3.5%, Eleven ended with 3.2%, News 24 was on 1.0%, ABC3, 0.9% and SBS TWO on 0.4%. The 120 digital channels had a very high share last night of 32.7%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 22.5% from Nine (three) on 19.8%,  the ABC (four) on 26.6%, Ten (three) on 14.8% and SBS (two) on 4.9%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel boosted pay TV’s share to a high 19.5% last night. That left the 15 FTA channels with a total share last night of 80.5%. The 10 digital channels share was a high 25.7%, the five main channels share was a very low 54.8%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox Sports 2 6.6%.
  2. Fox8, TV1 — 2.8%.
  3. MOVIE ONE — 2.4%.
  4. LifeStyle, Fox Sports 1 — 2.1%.
  5. 111 Hits — 1.9%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Cricket Big Bash League FS2 — 225,000.
  2. Cricket Big Bash League — 206,000.
  3. Victoria’s Secret Parade (Fox8) — 96,000.
  4. 21 Jump Street (MOVIE ONE) — 89,000.
  5. Modern Family (Fox8) — 84,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 32.9% from WIN/NBN (three) on 25.9%,  the ABC (four) on 19.7%, SC Ten (three) on 16.3% and SBS (two) on 5.8%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 17.9% from WIN/NBN on 15.6%, ABC1 was on 13.3% and SC Ten ended on 10.5%. The digitals were won by 7TWO with 7.7% from 7mate on 6.8% and FO on 5.3%. The 10 digital channels had a huge FTA share last night of 36.3%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Seven News — 505,000.
  2. 60 Minutes — 459,000.
  3. ABC1 News — 428,000.
  4. Sunday Night — 426,000.
  5. Nine News — 406,000.

Major Metro Markets: Seven won everywhere bar the main channels in Melbourne where Nine edged into first spot. The ABC/ABC1 pushed Ten out of third in all markets except Adelaide and Perth, where the ABC/ABC1 pushed Nine out of second behind Seven in both. 7TWO won the digitals on a big night of viewing and won Melbourne and Adelaide. 7mate won Perth, ABC 2 won Sydney and GO won Brisbane.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data